18 September 2013, News Wires – US company Chevron has been granted approval by Lithuania’s environment ministry to explore for shale gas in the Baltic state.
It was reported earlier this month that Chevron was the sole bidder for the 1800 square-kilometre Silute-Taurage exploration tract.
On Monday Deputy Environment Minister Daiva Matoniene told reporters that the ministry “had decided to recommend that the government declare Chevron the winner” of the tender for the exploration permit.
The government must now make the final decision on awarding the tract to Chevron and will then have 90 days to ink a contract with the US company.
AFP quoted Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius as saying that he was in favour of the deal.
“I don’t see any obstacles. This process has dragged on too long,” he was quoted as saying.
The exploration contract would give Chevron seven years to explore the unconventional play which Lithuanian experts believe could hold up to 80 billion cubic metres of technically recoverable shale gas reserves.
A study by the US Energy Information Administration placed Lithuania’s potential recoverable shale gas reserves at 113 billion cubic metres.
– Upstream
